Greek Small Letter Alpha
Block: Greek and Coptic
- Symbol
- α
- Unicode
U+03B1- Unicode name
- GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
- Block
- Greek and Coptic
- Category
- Letter, Lowercase
- Type
- Unicode character
Greek Small Letter Alpha (α) is encoded as U+03B1 and has the formal Unicode name GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA. Unicode classifies it as Letter, Lowercase in the Greek and Coptic block. The Greek small letter alpha. The code point is the stable identifier when fonts, copy-and-paste, or surrounding context make the glyph ambiguous.
The Practical Role of α
The Greek small letter alpha.
Have another unfamiliar character? Open what is this character α? and identify it from the glyph itself, a Unicode value, or its appearance.
Use U+03B1 Instead of a Look-Alike
Use α when the text is intended to contain Greek Small Letter Alpha (U+03B1).
This is a character-identity rule rather than a style preference. Search, normalization, parsing, sorting, and copy-and-paste workflows can distinguish code points even when a reader cannot immediately see the difference.
How Context Narrows the Meaning of α
α is encoded as U+03B1 and classified as Letter, Lowercase.
The Unicode identity and the surrounding document answer different questions: the code point tells you which character is present, while the surrounding formula, interface, document, or notation system determines the local interpretation. Keeping those layers separate prevents a visual guess from being treated as a character definition.
Encoding α in HTML and Source Text
U+03B1 = decimal 945 = HTML α / α. A Unicode escape-style form is u03B1. Its UTF-8 bytes are CE B1.
Use these identifiers in markup, source code, exports, or character diagnostics when the glyph alone is not enough.
α Compared With Α, a, and ɑ
This character is linked with nearby or confusable records including Α Greek Capital Letter Alpha (U+0391), a Latin Small Letter A (U+0061), and ɑ Latin Small Letter Alpha (U+0251). The relationship is useful for identification, but it does not make those characters interchangeable.
Fonts can reduce or exaggerate visual differences, so use each character's Unicode value and name when the distinction matters. Replacing one code point with another can change meaning, search behavior, parsing, sorting, or typography even when the glyphs appear close on screen.